Hannity Trots Out Donald Rumsfeld To Help Turn Benghazi Into Watergate

If anything should discredit Fox’s attempts to turn Benghazi into Watergate, it’s their use of Donald Rumsfeld to throw stones of foreign policy blunders and cover-ups from his Iraq “Weapons of Mass Destruction” glass house. Not that that would ever be mentioned on “fair and balanced” Fox. In fact, I can’t recall even a scintilla of the interest in the false premises used by the George W. Bush administration to invade Iraq as there is in fingerpointing against the Obama administration before the Benghazi investigation has been completed. So it looks like a twofer for Fox in trotting out Rumsfeld to attack Obama. On the one hand, it looks like an authoritative attack coming from a former Secretary of Defense that Fox viewers saw little to no questioning of his credibility. At the same time, it helps boost that cred by disappearing those black marks on his record.

It was clear Sean Hannity had called up Rumsfeld last night to discredit a statement from Hillary Clinton that “The buck stops here,” with regard to security of diplomats. Why? Not because Hannity gives a fig about their security or how it’s managed – I have yet to see him discuss, much less air a report, on the safety of any living State Department personnel – but because he’s gunning for the top spot on the Democratic food chain.

Rumsfeld did not disappoint. He spoke as if both a White House cover up and guilt were a certainty. “The buck with respect to providing security is certainly within her area of responsibility (but) the way the White House has tried to cover this up… the responsibility for that as well as the responsibility for the Secretary Of State not providing appropriate security does in fact fall to the president.”

Hannity said, “This does not make this go away by any stretch of the imagination.” He was so enthusiastic, he has apparently forgotten (for now, anyway), his latest old video that he was certain would finally persuade the country that Obama’s a racist. But maybe Hannity understood that calling the president a racist at the same time that you’re trying to accuse him of a foreign policy failure cover up might well put a crimp in one’s gravitas.

“This is just one thing,” Rumsfeld said, referring to Benghazi. He went on to attack the rest of the Obama administration’s foreign policy, including Iraq.

Hannity could barely contain the excitement in his voice as he “asked,” “If the White House lied and purposely lied to the American people and were trying to cover this up… what does that mean in terms of… potential political fall out for this president? Seems to me that this goes much deeper than an election with a orchestrated cover up?”

This is not the first time Fox has called on Rumsfeld to attack Obama on national security. So I’ve got an idea: How about Romney finding a place for him on his national security team? How well do you think that would go down with the general public? Something tells me that despite Fox’s best efforts, they won’t be able to disappear Rumsfeld’s record:

MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, weapons of mass destruction. Key goal of the military campaign is finding those weapons of mass destruction. None have been found yet. There was a raid on the Answar Al-Islam Camp up in the north last night. A lot of people expected to find ricin there. None was found. How big of a problem is that? And is it curious to you that given how much control U.S. and coalition forces now have in the country, they haven’t found any weapons of mass destruction?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Not at all. If you think—let me take that, both pieces—the area in the south and the west and the north that coalition forces control is substantial. It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.

Lehrer: Do you expect the invasion, if it comes, to be welcomed by the majority of the civilian population of Iraq?

Rumsfeld: There’s obviously the Shia population in Iraq and the Kurdish population in Iraq have been treated very badly by Saddam Hussein’s regime, they represent a large fraction of the total. There is no question but that they would be welcomed. Go back to Afghanistan, the people were in the streets playing music, cheering, flying kites, and doing all the things that the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda would not let them do. Saddam Hussein has one of the most vicious regimes on the face of the earth. And the people know that.

Rumsfeld is another old fool, just like Cheney, that can’t stand to be out of the spotlight, so he does these Fox News spots to boost his own inflated ego. Memo to Rumsfeld: Go away, nobody wants to hear from the likes of you. Message to Sean Hannity: You’re still the biggest asshole on the planet.

Wasn’t he in office at the time that the CIA stried to tell the Bush administration that the reports of WMDs in Iraq were grossly exaggerated? It took several years to find out that that was the truth … and these same idiots are complaining about a few days?

The Director of the CIA at the time was General Michael Hayden who was interviewed by Kilmeade on F&F a few days ago. In the video that Ellen posted on Crooks and Liars, the General refuses to get all bothered and Brian’s face is priceless: he can’t believe what he’s hearing! A few days later, an entirely different (and appropriately slanted) version by a field operative was aired five times in the Sunday show of Fox and Friends. The trio on the couch were absolutely on cloud nine

I guess the foxies won’t be airing the interview with General Hayden any time soon, no more than the little talk between Ted Koppel and Bill O’Reilly.

@doors17. Good point. Let’s encourage KKKlannity to bring back the Bushies for a televised reunion tour just before the election. Dumbya himself, Darth Cheney and War Criminal Rummy. Remind swing voters of their record——two endless wars against Muslims, thousands of American lives lost and two trillion dollars wasted. That’s a record that all Teabagger-Repugs including MagicUnderwear Mitt should be forced to defend.

What I do find surprising is having a former Bush Administration official on as a guest this close to the election, especially one that has such negative numbers and brings back nightmare memories as Rummy has with the American public. I guess those that do have a positive attitude towards him make up a large percentage of Seanâs audience, but still you would think they would want to keep them out the public eye until after election.

So by all means Sean, please bring them all back. Memories are short, and letâs give everyone a reminder of why we shouldnât repeat the past by putting your beloveds back in power.